Fulton Financial Co. (NASDAQ:FULT) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

Shares of Fulton Financial Co. (NASDAQ:FULT) have received an average rating of “Hold” from the five ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $19.50.

FULT has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Piper Sandler set a $21.00 target price on Fulton Financial in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Stephens raised shares of Fulton Financial from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Fulton Financial from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of Fulton Financial from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Curtis J. Myers sold 24,192 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.16, for a total transaction of $511,902.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 155,946 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,299,817.36. The trade was a 13.43 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 1.07% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fulton Financial

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FULT. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in Fulton Financial during the third quarter valued at $33,000. Coston McIsaac & Partners bought a new stake in shares of Fulton Financial in the 3rd quarter worth about $54,000. Blue Trust Inc. raised its position in shares of Fulton Financial by 28.8% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 4,946 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $84,000 after buying an additional 1,106 shares in the last quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Fulton Financial by 11.6% in the 3rd quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 6,519 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $118,000 after acquiring an additional 676 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AE Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Fulton Financial in the second quarter worth about $172,000. Institutional investors own 72.02% of the company’s stock.

Fulton Financial Stock Performance

NASDAQ:FULT opened at $19.06 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Fulton Financial has a twelve month low of $13.87 and a twelve month high of $22.49. The stock has a market cap of $3.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.06 and a beta of 0.79. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $20.44 and its 200 day simple moving average is $18.90.

Fulton Financial (NASDAQ:FULT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 15th. The bank reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.44 by $0.06. Fulton Financial had a return on equity of 11.33% and a net margin of 16.37%. The business had revenue of $487.33 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $321.00 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.43 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Fulton Financial will post 1.73 EPS for the current year.

Fulton Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.18 per share. This is an increase from Fulton Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 31st. Fulton Financial’s payout ratio is currently 45.57%.

Fulton Financial Company Profile

Fulton Financial Corporation operates as a financial holding company that provides consumer and commercial banking products and services in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Virginia. It accepts various checking accounts and savings deposit products, certificates of deposit, and individual retirement accounts.